A Breath of Fresh Air - Lakeridge Health Foundation

It is not always big equipment in the Operating Room or the Intensive Care Unit that our generous donors help fund for the Hospital. Continuous learning is essential for the medical professionals at Lakeridge Health that care for our friends and loved ones every day.

Training equipment helps our health care experts learn new techniques, practice in simulated situations and continue to improve the quality of care they provide.

During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, staff at Lakeridge Health quickly realized that effective airway management was critical for severe cases. Airway management involves the assessment, planning, and medical procedures required to maintain or restore an individual's ventilation, or breathing. Therefore, Airway training sessions became essential for staff in the Emergency Department and Critical Care Units.

Due to strenuous and repetitive use, in addition to the increasing intensity of the pandemic, the Lakeridge Health Education and Research Network (LHEARN) needed to replace their airway training equipment.

Thanks to a one of our generous donors, Lakeridge Health Foundation was able to purchase four new Airway Trainers.

The new design creates an environment where learners can practice suction and clearing, intubation, needle or surgical cricothyrotomy, and bag-valve ventilation using the same equipment they would use in real-life scenarios.

Since the summer of 2022, there have been over 100 residents and staff trained using the equipment during Queen’s University sessions and Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS) courses.

“The feedback has been positive,” recalls Suhair Clarke, the Medical Simulation Specialist in the LHEARN Centre. “The instructors are finding it easier to explain the anatomy of the airway and show how some medical devices interact with the airway visually.”

Rachel Howe, Clinical Practice Leader, facilitates the ACLS courses. She remembers plenty of issues with the old training equipment.

“We would regularly struggle when using oral and nasal airways in some of the older equipment, because there was often issues with inserting,” Rachel recalls. “It’s nice for our trainees to be able to get a more realistic feeling of their interventions.”

“I think the new trainers give the care provider more confidence in a real-life situation,” she explains. “They're able to see what happens as a result of their interventions in a real simulation.”

Thanks to donor support, the Lakeridge Health team has access to the most up-to-date training possible, ensuring the best care for patients and their families.